Plane struck tree on takeoff that killed pilot Jim Tweto, initial investigation showsThe aircraft was attempting takeoff from a remote, off-airport, mountain ridgeline airstrip
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The aircraft flown by famed Alaska pilot Jim Tweto clipped a tree when it was taking off from a remote, off-airport, mountain ridgeline airstrip in June, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary investigative report released Tuesday. The crash took the lives of Tweto, of Unalakleet, and outdoor guide Shane Reynolds, of Orofino, Idaho. The crash happened at about 11:35 a.m., on June 16, near Shaktoolik.
After clipping the tree, the left stabilizer of the aircraft, or its pitch control, was disabled. The aircraft crashed, uncontrolled after that. A guide, who was at the scene of the crash, said winds had been “gusting and changing a lot,” that day. Others in the area had described winds as unusual. Tweto was known to have used the mountain airstrip many times before.
The airplane involved in the crash, a Cessna 180H, was operated by Golden Eagle Outfitters and involved a remote bear hunting excursion, the NTSB wrote in their preliminary investigation. The pilot, Tweto, had returned to the remote airstrip after having flown two hunters to another destination when he picked up Reynolds and gear.
“There’s a lot more work to do,” said Clint Johnson, chief of NTSB’s Alaska Regional Office. “We don’t know if there was a momentary loss of engine power. We don’t know if there was a medical issue. We don’t know if there was maybe a control issue. Yes, the end result is, it appears at this early juncture, that the airplane struck a tree on takeoff and disabled one of the flight controls, but we don’t know what led up to that. That’s our job right now to see if we can figure out what happened during those couple of moments before the airplane hit the tree.”
It can take a year for the NTSB to fully complete an investigation. Johnson said he doesn’t expect the crash that took Tweto’s life to take longer than a year to fully investigate.
Tweto’s family said the famed pilot had taught more than 100 people how to fly and inspired countless people to become pilots. Tweto was a star of the Discovery Channel reality show “Flying Wild Alaska.”
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